Beach Gold #3

     After storms in the winter is the time to go panning for gold on beaches, the sand levels are at their lowest especially in February, which exposes gold traps like holes or any crevices. As in rivers, these will have rocks jammed in them, but that's good. My first real colors were recovered from a crevice just north of River Mouth, or as it's called now, Dog Beach which is the boundary between Del Mar and Solana Beach.
One day after a stormy week I was walking around there and noticed several crevices near an exposed rock sitting on bedrock. Unstable looking cliffs were only thirty or so feet away but they weren't too high. Atop this small bluff at the very end of Solana Beach sits the discovery site of Del Mar Man, which at one time was dated as 46,000 years old in the '70s, but refuted later as no older that other archaeological sites locally. I also enjoyed the "war" being fought on the 4th of July 1976 between the north sand south beaches from the advantage, and relative safety, of these small bluffs. After almost all the fireworks had been expended, many small fireworks were shot toward the others beach, we then were treated the our 200th Anniversary fireworks from the Del Mar Fair just over HWY 101 and RR tracks away. Some night that was, my first 4th living in North County, eight years later I was looking for gold just below these small bluffs.

     At this time beach restoration projects this winter may cover north county beaches when they would normally be low in sand. I'm not sure which beaches have been restored but shots of a beach near Solana Beach are very wide now, but even so, if the winter storms are strong, the sand could be removed as in the normal cycle of beach removal and natural restoration in the spring.

Beach Gold #2

     My experience with beach gold has been limited to the beaches of north San Diego County, from a few hundred yards south of the old power station remains in Del Mar to Ponto Beach in southern Carlsbad, about ten miles of beaches. Most of my time was spent close to home, I would walk south on Sierra Ave. to the stairs near Bank of America (on HWY 101 and Dahlia), and walk on the beach south to the next set of stairs.  Here, black sand often collected at the bottom of the bluff and between some outcrops that these stairs were built on. I spent more than a few hours over several years learning about beach gold, how it was distributed and the general structure of the beach. I also explored other beaches and usually found at least a micro fine, but not always. My best areas were the area beside the staircase I walked to, the small beach just north of River Mouth (the Del Mar Race Track can be seen from River Mouth 1/4 mile east), and small bedrock enclaves just south of the main beach in Del Mar. All produced at least some placer gold that looked much like the gold I had recovered from my claims near Julian.

     While I was studying the beach, a young man was also studying the beach, seventh grader Allen Harker. He measured the beach sand levels for three years, he had some personal pointers from Scripts Institute. After seeing his story in the paper, I visited him and asked for copies of his data, promising to always give him credit when I used his data.  Between what I learned and his data, I was able to write a paper, "Beach Placer Theory" which I sent to the Alaskan Placer Conference in 1986. It was accepted, but I couldn't go there and give a talk about it, no money or costs covered except a room.

Beach Gold #1

     All beaches have lost gold but to test for placer gold I found a simple way. My first beach gold wasn't more than two micro-fines but they confirmed gold was there other than lost gold. They were recovered from 1/4 inch long moss on a buried rock that was accidentally scooped up when I was collecting a thin lens of black sand.  Other rocks with moss produced more very small colors, confirming placer gold was on the beaches of Solana Beach, California. This was super small gold, not worth panning or destroying the moss on the rocks. I was very happy, at the time I lived just a walk away from the beach. My next goal was to find beach gold worth panning for, like a normal sized color. A small rock and sand filled pothole didn't produce anything, it seemed right and if found along a gold producing river it should have had gold and lead. Later I realized it was too close to the pounding heavy surf on the abrasion platform to retain gold, the big surf would scour out the pot hole which was about 40 yards out from the cliff at Table Tops, the northern beach in Solana Beach. I would have better luck further south at and closer to the southern end of the beaches of the city.

    The nearest producing gold mine had been in southern Escondido, about twelve air miles up San Dieguito (deegueeto) Creek, but Escondido had other gold mines in that area too, plus the 60 foot cliffs in Solana Beach were simi-consolidated beach sand also a potential source of placer gold.